Newsletter – C.M. Mayo's Book Notes & Convos

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie

BY C.M. MAYO — May 30, 2022
UPDATE: This blog was then entitled Madam Mayo (2006-2022).

It’s the fifth Monday of the month: time for the newsletter and a dollop of cyberflanerie.

POSTS AT MADAM MAYO BLOG
SINCE THE LAST NEWSLETTER

May 24, 2022 – Q & A:
From the Archives: Q & A with Poets Alenier, Anhalt, Crooker, Hill, Hutchison, and Mackay
May 9, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
Five Perhaps Apparently Silly But Ultra-Serious Reflections on Nurturing Creative Thought (Starting with Beethoven’s Ninth)

April 18, 2022
Thank you, Dear Readers: On the Occasion of Madam Mayo Blog’s 16th Anniversary
April 4, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Texas Books: The End of Night, West Texas Time Machine, How We See the Sky, and More Books About the Sky & Stars

The end of March 2022 marks the 16th anniversary of this blog, after which point, until further notice, I will be posting approximately two Mondays a month. The posts on Texas Books, the writing workshop, my own work, and a Q & A with another writer, will continue, each posting every other month and, as ever, when there is a fifth Monday in a given month, that’s for the newsletter.

March 28, 2022 – Q & A:
From the Archives: Q & A with Bruce Berger on A Desert Harvest
March 20, 2022
From the Archives: “The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou’s Mexico City”
March 14, 2022 – WORKSHOP (SORT OF):
Readers Write: “Should I Move to Mexico?”
March 7, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: A Review of Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West by Rubén Martínez

February 28, 2022 – Q & A:
Q & A with Michael Hogan About Guns, Grit and Glory: How the US and Mexico Came Together to Defeat the Last Empire in the Americas
February 21, 2022
From the Archives: Some Old Friends Spark Joy (Whilst Kondo-ing My Library)
February 14, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
From the Archives: Five Super Simple Tips for Better Book Design
February 7, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: My Review of Heribert von Feilitzsch’s
In Plain Sight: Felix A. Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico, 1908-1914

OTHER NEWS

Look for the Marfa Mondays podcasts to resume this summer.
By Jove & by Jimmy Dean, this will happen.

WORKSHOP NEWS

No news, other than that I am continuing to post for my workshop students every other second Monday throughout this year, 2022. You can find the archive of workshop posts, plus “‘Giant Golden Buddha’ & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises” here.

CYBERFLANERIE

From one of my favorite poets, the sublimely talented Joe Hutchison: “I’ve started a little monthly poetry journal focused on poets associated with the Mountain West, called Bristlecone. (First two issues here and here.)

***

From my fellow translators, editors of Résonance: “We are thrilled to announce the publication of volume 4 of the open-access Franco-American online literary journal Résonance. With this issue, we’ve migrated the entire journal to a new website: www.resonance-journal.org. Volume 4 features a groundbreaking interview with the accomplished and influential poet Bill Tremblay that’s full of retrospective reflections. The interview is complemented by a generous selection of Tremblay’s new poems. The intriguing work of the Louisianian artist Chase Julien graces this issue, and his responses to the interview questions posed by our Arts Editor Erica Vermette provide insight into his sources of inspiration and his creative process. We invite you to explore the outstanding fiction, reviews, and poems we’ve gathered by such award-winning authors as Leslie Choquette, Ron Currie, Dorianne Laux, and Jeri Theriault. Please help us spread the word about our unique journal. We are now open for submissions to volume 5.”

***

Mexican writer Araceli Ardón on Mari Benedetti in 7 minutes, and Isabelle Allende in 7 minutes:

***

The unique and magnificently prolific Violet Cabra on Novels vs. Television

***

The wisdom of Hafez:

***

I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.

On Seeing as an Artist or, Five Techniques for a Journey to Einfühlung

Why Translate? The Case of the President of Mexico’s Secret Book

Edna Ferber’s Giant & A Selection of Related Books, Plus Two Related Videos On (Yes) the Nuremberg Trials

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie (Rob Braxman on the Neural Hash New World Edition)

BY C.M. MAYO — January 31, 2022
UPDATE: This blog was then entitled Madam Mayo (2006-2022).

It’s the fifth Monday of the month: time for the newsletter and a dollop of cyberflanerie.

POSTS AT MADAM MAYO BLOG
SINCE THE LAST NEWSLETTER

TEXAS BOOKS
= First Monday of the Month=

“What Is a Film Outside the Audience’s Mind?”
Notes on George Stevens: Interviews
January 3, 2022

Edna Ferber’s Giant & A Selection of Related Books,
Plus Two Related Videos On (Yes) the Nuremberg Trials
December 6, 2021
*

WRITING WORKSHOP POSTS
= Second Monday of the Month =

More on Seeing as an Artist or,
The Rich Mine of Stories About
Those Who “See” the Emperor’s Clothes
January 11, 2022

Bringing in the Body
December 13, 2021

*

MISC & C.M. MAYO NEWS
= Third Monday of the Month =

From the Archives:
“Tulpa Max or, Notes on the Afterlife of a Resurrection”
January 17, 2022

Top Books Read 2021
December 20, 2021
*

Q & A WITH OTHER WRITERS
= Fourth Monday of the month =

Q & A with Thaddeus Rutkowski on Tricks of Light
January 24, 2022

Q & A: Some Hard-Earned Advice on Publishing
from Poets, Novelists and Historians
December 27, 2021
*

OTHER NEWS

Look for the Marfa Mondays podcasts to resume in early 2022.
By Jove & by Jimmy Dean, this will happen.

WORKSHOP NEWS

In 2022 look for my monthly workshop post on
the second Monday of every month.

CYBERFLANERIE:
ROB BRAXMAN ON THE NEURAL HASH NEW WORLD EDITION

Big Tech companies have their own political agenda, and if you don’t happen to be on board with that— whether now or, perhaps at some point in the future— they have some other ideas about what information is good for you, dear writerly reader, to be able to access and to communicate. Are you on FaceBook or Whatsapp? Do you use gmail and/or Google search? Do you have an iPhone? If you can answer yes to any of these—and many more such questions— you might appreciate learning about the astonishing new ways that Big Tech companies have to identify you, your relationships, your locations, and much more about what’s in your mind than you might imagine, and thereby, to their advantage, game the information that you see and don’t see. Cookies and trackers are “old school” now. Herewith, a selection from Rob Braxman’s tech savvy advice on how to handle Big Tech’s Neural Hash New World.

Apple Client-Side Scanning Ruins Phone Security for Everyone

How Big Tech Finds Your Exact Location—
Even When You’re Hiding It

We Have Been Chipped— And Nobody Cares

iPhone Neural Hash — SHOCKING AI Tech

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie: Mexico Edition

Duende and the Importance of Questioning ELB

Q & A: Ellen Cassedy, Translator of On the Landing by Yenta Mash

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie: Mexico Edition

BY C.M. MAYO — November 29, 2021
UPDATE: This blog was then entitled Madam Mayo (2006-2022).

This finds me working away on my Far West Texas book which, unavoidably, concerns Mexico. Meanwhile, it’s time for the fifth-Monday-of-the-month newsletter and cyberflanerie, Mexico edition.

Delightful Mexico-related items have been landing in my mailboxes— both email and snailmail! First of all, the pioneering consciousness explorer and interviewer Jeffrey Mishlove has won the Bigelow Prize of USD $500,000—you read that right, half a million dollars— for his essay, “Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death.” The news relevant to Yours Truly and Mexico is that, in this essay, Mishlove mentions my work about Francisco I. Madero, the leader of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, who also happened to be a Spiritist medium. A few years ago in Las Vegas, I was also greatly honored when Mishlove interviewed me at length for his show, New Thinking Allowed.

You can read Mishlove’s award-winning essay “Beyond the Brain” in its mind-blowing entirety for free, and read more about the impressive panel of judges, and the also impressive runners-up for the Bigelow prize at this link.

Another delightful item to land in my mailbox in this drizzly-gray season was the pristine copy of Lloyd Kahn’s 1999 newspaper, El Correcaminos, Vol. 1. No. 1, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. In the photo below, my writing assistant, Uli Quetzalpugtl, lends his presence to the wonderfulness! Gracias, Lloyd!

I’ve been a big fan of Lloyd Khan’s many endeavors (including this one) for some years now. Among other things, Kahn is the editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications. Check out his website and blog.

For me, reading this first 1999 issue of El Correcaminos was like stepping into a very personal time machine, for that was the year that, having concluded several years of intensively traveling and interviewing in and researching about that Mexican peninsula, I started polishing my draft of the manuscript that would appear as Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (University of Utah Press, 2002).

Here’s a photo of El Correcaminos’ page of recommended books— ah ha! Anne Zwinger’s A Desert Country Near the Sea, Graham Mackintosh’s Into a Desert Place; Walt Peterson’s The Baja Adventure Book: These are some of the books I’d kept on my desk, and even carried with me on my travels. I’m smiling as I write this. How books can be like old friends! And sometimes their authors can become friends, too! (Hola, dear Graham!)

More Mexico news from Denver, Colorado: My amiga Pat Dubrava reads her translation of “The Magic Alphabet,” a short story by Mexican writer Agustín Cadena for Jill!

Dubrava and I both translate Cadena— he’s vastly under-appreciated in English, and we’re aiming to change that.

Mexican librarian and essayist Juan Manuel Herrera writes in Reforma about Mexico City’s esteemed rare book dealer, owner of the Librería Antigua Madero, Enrique Fuentes Castilla (March 30, 1940- March 8, 2021). I so admired and adored Don Enrique; I never considered my time in Mexico City well-spent without a visit to his Librería Madero. His passing is the passing of an era.

(Don Enrique was very helpful to me, and I wrote about him and Librería Madero a little bit in my long essay about the Mexican literary landscape, “Dispatch from the Sister Republic or, Papelito Habla.”)

Another big part of the wonderfulness of Mexico City is its Centro de Estudios de Historia de México (CEHM) in the southern neighborhood of Chimalistac. Its director, historian Dr. Manuel Ramos Medina, reads a letter from the Empress Carlota to Señora Dolores de Almonte—this being one from the vast cornucopia of treasures in the CEHM’s archives. For those of you who speak Spanish and have an interest in Mexican history, check out the website for information of the innumerable free online lectures they offer.

My amigo Mexican writer Eduardo Zaráte has a fine new book of short stories: Cuentan las gentes (será cierto o no).

His wife, my amiga Araceli Ardón, a writer I have long admired and some of whose fiction I have translated, is offering a free series of outstandingly good lectures on Mexican literature and on her Ardón method of creative writing— in Spanish. Highly recommended.

How did I miss this fascinating 2014 article by Margaret Randall about Hassan Fathy??!! I came across Randall’s work back when I started editing the now-defunct Tameme literary magazine, and Fathy’s work, when I interviewed Simone Swan on the US-Mexico border in Presidio, Texas.

POSTS AT MADAM MAYO BLOG
SINCE THE LAST NEWSLETTER

TEXAS BOOKS
= First Monday of the Month=

They Beat Their Horses with Rocks
(And Other Means of Energizing Transport in the Permian Basin of 1858)
November 1, 2021

Into the Guadalupe Mountains: Some Favorites from the Texas Bibliothek
(Plus a Couple of Extra-Crunchy Videos)
October 4, 2021

From the Archives: My Review of Edward H. Miller’s
Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy
September 6, 2021
*

WRITING WORKSHOP POSTS
= Second Monday of the Month =

Verbszzzzz… or Verbs!
November 8, 2021

Itty Bitty But Bold! From the Archives: “Revision:
Take a Chainsaw to Those Little Darlings,
Prune, Do No Harm, Be an Archaeologist,
Move the Furniture Onto the Front Lawn, Flip the Gender”
October 11, 2021

Fearless Fabian / Plus From the Archives:
“The Vivid Dreamer” Writing Workshop from
the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
September 13, 2021
*

MISC & C.M. MAYO NEWS
= Third Monday of the Month =

How Wide is Your Overton Window?
Plus from the Archives:
“On Writing About Mexico: Secrets and Surprises”
November 15, 2021

“Julius Knows” in Catamaran
October 18, 2021

Neil Postman’s 1997 Lecture
“The Surrender of Culture to Technology”
September 20, 2021
*

Q & A WITH OTHER WRITERS
= Fourth Monday of the month =

Q & A with Philosopher Richard Polt on The Typewriter Revolution
November 22, 2021

How Are Some of the Most Accomplished Writers and Poets
Coping with the Digital Revolution? /
Plus: My Own Logbook and Stopwatch for Madam Mayo Blog
October 25, 2021

Q & A with Poet Karren Alenier on her New Book “How We Hold On,”
the WordWorks, Paul Bowles & More
September 27, 2021

OTHER NEWS

Look for the Marfa Mondays podcasts to resume in early 2022.

Wingsuit Video of the Season: Mexican Wingsuit Camp.

I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.

Ignacio Solares’ “The Orders” in Gargoyle Magazine #72

Q & A with Christina Thompson on Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia

Translation on the Menu, Plus from the Archives:
“Café San Martín”– Reading Mexican Poet Agustín Cadena
at the Café Passé in Tucson, Arizona

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie

BY C.M. MAYO — August 30, 2021
UPDATE: This blog was then entitled Madam Mayo (2006-2022).

It’s the fifth Monday of the month, time for the newsletter. Since the last newsletter, it’s been a quiet time in the workshop & podcasting department (please note: Marfa Mondays will resume shortly). In case you missed them, recent blog posts include:

August 23, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Lynne Sharon Schwartz About Crossing Borders
August 16, 2021
Trommelwirbel und Vorhang Auf! And a Bit About Adventures in Learning German
August 9, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Writing More Vivid Descriptions (Start by Leaving the Smartphone Off)
August 2, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Texas Books / From the Archives: Claudio Saunt’s West of the Revolution

July 26, 2021 – Q & A:
From the Archives: Q & A with Mary S. Black on From the Frío to Del Río
July 19, 2021
My Interview About Francisco Madero a “Classic Reboot” on Jeffrey Mishlove’s “New Thinking Allowed”– Plus From the Archives: A Review of Kripal and Strieber’s The Super Natural (and Reflections on Mishlove’s The PK Man)
July 12, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Tools for a Novel-in-Progress
July 6, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: A Review of Pekka Hämäläinen’s The Comanche Empire

June 28, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Biographer David O. Stewart on the Stunning Fact of George Washington
June 20, 2021
From the Archives: Sam Quinones’ Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
June 14, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
From the Archives: “Giant Golden Buddha” & 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises
June 7, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Selected Cabeza de Vaca Books, Part II: Notes on Narrative Histories and Biographies

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading maybe not 17,894 books at a time, but sometimes it feels that way! A selection of current reading from the Texas Bibliothek:

Also on my reading table: S. Kirk Walsh’s charming novel The Elephant of Belfast. I have a notion to finish it at the zoo… (by the elephant enclosure, of course…)

Cyberflanerie

Inspiring: Pat Dubrava’s translation journey.

Sergio Troncoso’s essay “Dust to Dust,” in Texas Highways Magazine, August 2021.

Rose Mary Salum’s conversation with Sergio Troncoso about his anthology Nepantla Familias in Literal magazine.

Edward Luttwak’s “Goethe in China”in the London Review of Books— one of the strangest and most important things I’ve read this year.

Because I’ve been thinking about the clarifying power of fairy tales, I recently reread this classic one as told by Hans Christian Anderson. (What would you not venture to say that you see?)

Alberto Blanco, collage artist and one of Mexico’s finest poets, has a new website.

Alison Lurie’s memories of Edward Gorey which I found by way of a search, after I read (and so loved) Mark Dery’s bio, Born to be Posthumous.

“Miraflores at 100” in the San Antonio Botanical Garden this September 18th. More at Anne Elise Urrutia’s website, Quinta Urrutia.

Mexico’s mega-mega-MEGA bookfair, the Feria Internacional de Libros, is open for business and, notably, inviting translators. From David Unger, International Representative:
https://www.fil.com.mx/ingles/i_prof/i_traductores.asp and www.fil.com.mx November 27-December 5 Professional Days Nov. 29-Dec. 1. Peru will be the Guest of Honor.
(See my post about a FIL of olde—that post not yet migrated from the old platform.)

Mexican writer Araceli Ardón, whose superb story appears in my anthology Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, offers a series of free craft lectures (in Spanish) on creative writing. Check out her YouTube channel, which includes this excellent lecture on writing dialogue:

I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.

Q & A with Katherine Dunn on White Dog and
Writing in the Digital Revolution

Who Was B. Traven? Timothy Heyman on the Triumph of Traven

Cal Newport’s Deep Work; Study Hacks Blog, and on Quitting Social Media

Newsletter: Blog Post Roundup & Cyberflanerie

It’s the fifth Monday of the month; herewith, my newsletter. This finds me working on the Far West Texas book and its related 24 podcast series—for podcast 22, stay tuned. Meanwhile, I invite you to listen in any time to the 21 podcasts posted so far.

In case you missed them, Madam Mayo posts since the last newsletter include:

TEXAS BOOKS
(POSTED FIRST MONDAY OF THE MONTH THROUGHOUT 2021)

Selected Cabeza de Vaca Books, Part I: Notes on the Two Editions of Cabeza de Vaca’s La Relación (Also Known as Account, Chronicle, Narrative, Castaways, Report & etc.) and Selected English Translations
May 3, 2021

Carolyn E. Boyd’s The White Shaman Mural
April 5, 2021

FOR THE WRITING WORKSHOP
(POSTED SECOND MONDAY OF THE MONTH THROUGH 2021)

The Manuscript is Ready–Or is It? What’s Next?
Transcript of my talk for the Writer’s Center conference on publishing
April 12, 2021

On the 15th Anniversary of Madam Mayo Blog
April 19, 2021

Q & A’s
(POSTED 4th MONDAY OF THE MONTH THROUGH 2021)

Q & A with Kathleen Alcalá on Spirits of the Ordinary
May 24, 2021

Q & A with Susan J. Tweit on Her Memoir, Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying
April 26, 2021

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A Traveler in Mexico: A Rendezvous with Writer Rosemary Sullivan
May 17, 2021

CYBERFLANERIE

For those writing in Spanish—and I know that many of you writerly readers do— I warmly recommend the talented Mexican writer Araceli Ardón’s YouTube channel, where she is currently offering a series of excellent tutorials on creative writing.

My esteemed amiga Ellen Prentiss Campbell has a new novel out, Frieda’s Song. You can read her Q & A with me about her other recent book, Known by Heart, here.

Thought-provoking: Philosopher Edward Feser on Social Media’s Fifth Circle.

Radio Garden. Kinda mind-blowin’. Hat tip to my amiga H.F.

In Memoriam: Antiquarian Bookseller Dorothy Sloan.

I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me by simply clicking here.

Donald M. Rattner’s My Creative Space

Q & A with Diana Anhalt on Her Poetry Collection Walking Backward

Biographers International Interview with C.M. Mayo: Strange
Spark of the Mexican Revolution

My new book is Meteor

Find out more about
C.M. Mayo’s books, articles, podcasts, and more.

Newsletter (Texas Books, Workshop Posts, Q & As, Zooms & Cyberflanerie)

This blog posts on Mondays. Fifth Mondays, when they happen to arrive, are for the newsletter. Herewith the latest posts covering Texas Books, workshop posts, Q & As, selected other posts and news, plus cyberflanerie.

TEXAS BOOKS
(Look for posts about Texas Books on the first Monday of the month throughout 2021).
The Texas Bibliothek’s Digital Doppelgänger: My Online Working Library of Rare Books
March 1, 2021
From the Texas Bibliothek: The Sanderson Flood of 1965; Faded Rimrock Memories; Terrell County, Texas: Its Past, Its People
February 1, 2021
A Trio of Texas Biographies in the Texas Bibliothek
January 4, 2021
> View all Texas posts here.

WORKSHOP POSTS
(Look for these every second Monday of the month throughout 2021)
Recommended Literary Travel Memoirs
March 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Creative Process
February 8, 2021
Recommended Books on the Craft of Creative Writing
January 11, 2021
Shake It Up with Emulation-Permutation Exercises
December 14, 2020
> View all workshop posts here.

Q & A with Tim Heyman about B. Traven in Literal Magazine

Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy of the German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven

MORE Q & As ON THIS BLOG
(Look for these every fourth Monday of the month through 2021)
Q & A with Jan Cleere
on Military Wives in Arizona Territory: A History of Women Who Shaped the Frontier
March 22, 2021
Q & A with Solveig Eggerz
on Sigga of Reykjavik
February 22, 2021
Q & A with Christina Thompson
on Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
January 25, 2021
Q & A with Álvaro Santana-Acuña
on Writing Ascent to Glory: How One Hundred Years of Solitude
Was Written and Became a Global Classic
December 28, 2020
> View all Q & As here.

SELECTED OTHER POSTS AT MADAM MAYO BLOG
Melanie Kobayashi’s Champagne Kegger —
Plus From the Archives: Ruth Levy Guyer’s A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day
January 18, 2021
Top Books Read 2020
December 7, 2020
> View the Madam Mayo blog archive here.

OTHER NEWS
Ignacio Solares’ “The Orders” in Gargoyle Magazine #72

Ignacio Solares, one of Mexico’s most outstanding literary writers, appears in English translation by Yours Truly in the fabulous new issue #72 of Gargoyle. Edited by poet Richard Peabody, Gargoyle is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s most enduring and prestigious literary magazines. Check it out! Solares’ short story is entitled “The Orders” (“Las instrucciones”). My thanks to Ignacio Solares for the honor, to Richard Peabody for accepting it and bringing it forth, and to Nita Congress for her eagle-eyed copyediting. (My previous translation of Solares’ work, the short story “Victoriano’s Deliriums,” appeared in The Lampeter Review #11.)

*The cover of Gargoyle #72, which includes my translation of a short story by Ignacio Solares, features spoken word poet Salena Godden.*

Earlier this month I gave a Zoom talk on my book Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual (as translated by Agustín Cadena, Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución Mexicana, Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, Manual espírita) for the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México. If and when this talk becomes available as a recording I will be sure to post a notice in my newsletter. If the subject interests you, some of my other talks and interviews are here.

By the way, if you don’t subscribe to Madam Mayo blog but would like to receive my very occasionally emailed newsletter (via Mad Mimi, my email letter service) just send me an email at cmmayo (at) cmmayo.com and I’ll add you to my mailing list.

MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT
Ongoing! I’ve let the Marfa Mondays podcast sit for a while as I am working on the (related) book, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas. That said, I’m almost…almost… done with podcast #22, which is an unusually wide-ranging interview recorded in Sanderson, a remote town that also happens to be the cactus capital of Texas. Podcasts 1 – 21 are all available to listen for free online here.

COOL STUFF ON MY RADAR ( = CYBERFLANERIE = )
The brilliantly brilliant Edward Tufte is offering his course on video. I took his in-person workshop twice, that’s how big a fan I am. I wish everyone else would take it, too, for then our world could be a little less fruit-loopy.

My amigo the esteemed playwright and literary translator Geoff Hargreaves has a most promising new novel out from Floricanto Press, The Collector and the Blind Girl

Heidegger scholar and Typewriter Revolutionary Richard Polt offers his thoughts on typing a novel.

Poet Patricia Dubrava shares a beauty on her blog, Holding the Light: “Hearing the Canadas”

Cal Newport on “Beethoven and the Gifts of Silence.” Newport has a new podcast by the way, which is ultra-fabulous. Newport’s new book, A World Without Email, is a zinger of clarity. More about that anon.

Allison Rietta, artist, designer, yoga teacher, sound healer, and founder of “Avreya” offers a new series of digital books on contemplative practice that each, I am honored to say, include a writing exercise by Yours Truly. (These writing exercises are from my “Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises” which you can access here.) Rietta’s digital books are so refreshingly lovely, and filled with wise and practical ideas for anyone seeking to improve the quality of their health and creative life. Here’s her introduction:

A series of five Contemplative Practice books based on the elements of nature: air, earth, fire, space and water. Each book is designed specifically to enhance that particular element and offers holistic, contemplative practices that include yoga asanas, pranayama, meditation, creative writing and visual art.

What’s in each book:
Warm up and yoga asana-s (postures)
Pranayama – a breath technique
Meditation practice
Creative writing prompt
Art journaling prompt
Practice pairings – Just as pairing food dishes with wine enhances the dining experience, this book offers pairings designed to complement each element such as, music, crystals, essential oils and mantras.

The books are designed to help yoga practitioners cultivate a personal home practice. The practices offered in these books may be done sequentially or separately.

Visit Allison Rietta here and find her new books here.

My new book is Meteor

My amigo poet, playwright, literary translator and writing reacher Zack Rogow was interviewed by Jeffrey Mishove for New Thinking Allowed on “Surrealism and Spontaneity”: A most informative and charming video.

Anne Elise Urrutia’s Pechakucha on her grandfather Dr. Aureliano Urrutia’s “Miraflores”—something very special in San Antonio, Texas history.

“Traven’s Triumph” by Timothy Heyman (Guest Blog)

Duende and the Importance of Questioning ELB

Notes on Artist Xavier González (1898-1993), “Moonlight Over the Chisos,”
and a Visit to Mexico City’s Antigua Academia de San Carlos

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie (Wild Dreaming & Tidying Edition)

It’s the fifth Monday of a month: time for the newsletter. Since my previous newsletter post, back in August, as usual, every Monday I have posted here to the Madam Mayo blog, with the second Monday of the month dedicated to the workshop and the fourth to a Q & A with a fellow writer.

November 23, 2020 – Q & A:
Q & A with Poet Matthew Pennock on The Miracle Machine

November 16, 2020
Hunkering Down, Plus From the Archives: A Review of
“John Bankhead Magruder: A Military Reappraisal”

November 9, 2020 – WORKSHOP:
Using Rhythm and Sound to Add Energy and Meaning to Your Prose

November 2, 2020
A Glimpse of the New Literary Puzzlescape

October 26, 2020– Q & A:
Q & A with Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy of
German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven

October 19, 2020
“Traven’s Triumph” by Timothy Heyman (Guest Blog)

October 12, 2020 – WORKSHOP:
Grokking Scansion: A Teensy (Albeit Painfully Tedious) Investment
for a Megamungous Payoff in the Power of Your Prose

October 5, 2020
Roger Mansell (1935-2010) on Researching the History
of the Mukden POW Camp

September 28, 2020 – Q & A:
How Are Some of the Most Accomplished Writers and Poets
Coping with the Digital Revolution?

September 21, 2020
Poet, Writer, and Teacher Pat Schneider (1934-2020)

September 14, 2020 – WORKSHOP:
Duende and the Importance of Questioning ELB

September 7, 2020
Translation on the Menu, Plus from the Archives:
“Café San Martín”– Reading Mexican Poet Agustín Cadena
at the Café Passé in Tucson, Arizona

WORKSHOP

No workshops are scheduled for the rest of this year. As for next year… it might be interesting. Meanwhile, the PDF of the handout from “Poetic Techniques to Power Up Your Fiction and Narrative Nonfiction,” the workshop I gave for the Women Writing the West virtual conference last month, is still available (free) at this link.

PODCAST

This finds me still editing the Marfa Mondays Podcast #22, a wide-ranging interview with Bill Smith about the history of Sanderson, the Cactus Capital of Texas. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, you can listen in anytime to the other 21 Marfa Mondays podcasts here.

CYBERFLANERIE
(DREAMING & TIDYING EDITION)

Wingmen do Ball’s Pyramid

Over at novelist Leslie Pietrzyk’s Work-in-Progress blog, a fascinating Q & A with Jennifer Howard about her book, Clutter: An Untidy History. I collect books on decluttering, LOL. Howard’s looks like an extra-crunchy one.

Lynne Kelly’s TED Talk on memory. In the new year I’ll be blogging about more her jaw-dropping work on these ancient and surprisingly powerful technologies of the imaginal.

Adriane Brown writes: “Many years ago, (2004, I believe), you taught a class at the Bethesda Writers Center called the Art and Craft of Writing. In that class, you had us write a 300 word exercise called ‘The Chef.’ You were very encouraging, and I continued to work on that piece over the years. It took a long time, but on July 30, 2020, it was published by Columbus Press as a 484 page novel titled The Café on Dream Street. It is currently for sale on Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, and Indiebooks. You can also check out my website at www.adrianebrown.com .”

Adriane Brown, my warmest congratulations to you! Write on!

On the litbiz front, Cory Doctorow says “We Need to Talk About Audible.”

Graham Robb on his fabulous and important book, Ancient Paths— which has a different title in the US, The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts:

On the literary travel writing front: Count me a mammoth fan of Padraig Rooney’s The Gilded Chalet, on literary Switzerland, which I’ll be nattering on about, possibly, in my top books read in 2020 list, to be posted next month. Check out Rooney’s essay on Annemarie Schwarzenbach in Iraq, 1934.

Also, check out the trailer for Werner Herzog’s Nomad, about the incomparable literary travel writer Bruce Chatwin:

Jennifer Redmond on Reality versus Dreams; Sympathy versus Empathy.

More Youtuberie: My favorite example du jour of “finding a niche.” The title is “Handy Spielen,” which I would translate from the German as “Playing with My Smartphone.” This is two German teachers teaching German to Taiwanese.

Ja, I’ve got this German thing going on. By the way, here’s a fantastic BBC documentary on The Art of Germany.

For those who have an interest in the Mexican Revolution, as I do, an excellent conference on Jornadas Culturales de la Revolución en la Frontera:

And, somewhat related, PBS reports on the Whitney and Mexican muralism:

Snap-crrrrackle-cackle: Sothis Medias on Data Sonification.

Claudio Saunt’s West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776

Top 10+ Books Read 2018

Lord Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico

My new book is Meteor

Newsletter & Cyberflanerie (Way-out Artists & Ideas Edition)

This blog posts on Mondays. As of this year, whenever the month happens to have a fifth Monday, I offer my news plus cyberflanerie.

(You can subscribe to my blog by email on the signup form to the right or, if you’re on a smartphone or tablet, scroll on down, you’ll find the signup for at the bottom of the screen. For the very once-in-a-while emailed newsletter only, just send me an email, cmmayo (at) cmmayo (dot) com and I’ll add you to the list.)

Podcast

Marfa Mondays Podcast #22, an interview with Bill Smith in Sanderson, Cactus Capital of Texas, is alllllllllllmost ready. I’m working at a snail’s pace this summer, transcribing notes on my wanderings around the Permian Basin. Meanwhile, listen in anytime to the 21 other Marfa Mondays podcasts here.

Blog Posts

Selected Madam Mayo posts since the previous newsletter:

Q & A with Katherine Dunn on White Dog and Writing in the Digital Revolution

Doug Hill’s Not So Fast: Thinking Twice About Technology

The Book As Thoughtform, the Book As Object: A Book Rescued, a Book Attacked, and Katherine Dunn’s Beautiful Book White Dog Arrives

Infinite Potential: The Life and Ideas of David Bohm

Workshop & Reading

Women Writing the West doing a Real World thing back in the time of BC (before corona)…. sigh… Note my book of poetry, Meteor, second row back from front, far left. Book PR…. WAHHHH

Originally to be held this October in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the annual Women Writing the West conference has gone virtual. As originally scheduled, but now via Zoom, I’ll be teaching a break-out workshop on powerful yet often overlooked poetic techniques for novelists and writers of creative nonfiction.

Saturday, October 17, 2020
~~9:10-10:10~~
8:00 – 9:00 AM (Colorado time)
POETIC TECHNIQUES TO POWER UP
YOUR FICTION & NONFICTION
C.M. MAYO

For writers of fiction and narrative nonfiction (whether biography, nature writing, or memoir), award-winning poet and writer C.M. Mayo’s workshop gives you a toolkit of specific poetic techniques you can apply immediately to make your writing more vivid and engaging for your readers.

Using handouts, first we’ll cover specificity with reference to the senses, a technique, basic as it may be, that many writers tend to underutilize. Then, in supersonic fashion, we’ll zoom over alliteration; use of imagery; repetition; listing; diction drops and spikes; synesthesia; and crucially, how to work with rhythm and sound to reinforce meaning.

The goal is for your writing to take an immediate step up.

P.S. You can find my book of poetry, Meteor, on amazon.com, et al.

And at the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) conference also this October, also gone virtual, I’ll be reading from my translation of one of Mexican writer Rose Mary Salum’s haunting short stories, “The Aunt,” which appeared in the beautiful Catamaran Literary Reader in 2019.

For those of you writerly readers who happen to be translators, or who might fancy to dip a toe in such waters, there’s still time to register for the conference, if you feel so moved. I can tell you that I have always found the ALTA conferences well worthwhile– old friends, new friends, everyone is friendly and encouraging, there are magazine and book editors, scads of thought-provoking panels, and readings galore of translations from an untold number of languages. (My own thing is Spanish, always amply represented in ALTA.) The most fun of all is the traditional “Declamation,” at the end. Thanks to the covid, rather than meeting for a weekend in Tucson, Arizona, this will be ALTA’s first ever virtual conference, spread out over three weeks. You can view the conference schedule here.

Cyberflanerie

B. Traven’s last novel, Aslan Norval, has been published in English in Kindle. Much more about this unusual novel and news anon.

Susan Brind Morrow’s essay for Lapham’s Quarterly “The Turning Sky: Discovering the Pyramid Texts” — and about her astonishingly beautiful and important work, much more anon.

Mexico Cooks! blog offers a fascinating and detail-packed post about Mexican vanilla.

Rick Black on The Amichai Windows:

Michael Minard’s 2 minute film Shiela Hale– Book Lover, Art Maker (hat tip to Deborah Batterman, who wrote about Hale’s work with her dictionary in this blog post, and supplies this link to an installation Hale did with a musician):

William Zeitler plays the glass armonica:

The Sociological Eye on the sociology of masks and social distancing.

Lady Evelyn Gray is just one of the many, many richly illustrated posts on the history of figure skating over at Ryan Stevens’ excellent Skate Blog. Tip of the sombrero to A. for this link.

“Viktor Schauberger: Comprehend and Copy Nature,” a documentary film.

To my delighted surprise, in this video below, Rev. Steve Hermann, author of Mediumship Mastery, warmly recommends my book (and my translation of Madero’s book), Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual. (You can read my Q & A with Hermann about the mediumship of Francisco I. Madero, one of the more interesting of the many interesting interviews I’ve posted here on Madam Mayo blog, at this link. )